Harvey Weinstein sentenced to 15 years in prison for sex assault

Harvey Weinstein in Manhattan criminal court  in May. File picture: Timothy A. Clary/AP

Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein has been sentenced to 15 years in prison in the US for a felony sex crime in another #MeToo reckoning.

Weinstein’s sentencing for sexually assaulting one-time TV production assistant Miriam Haley followed a legal odyssey spanning more than six years after his 2020 conviction was overturned. A jury found Weinstein guilty again at a retrial last year.

Once among the most powerful figures in the entertainment industry, Weinstein was an Oscar-winning producer whose hits included Shakespeare In Love, Pulp Fiction, and Chocolat. But his downfall came quickly after sexual assault allegations in 2017 set off the MeToo movement.

In 2024, New York’s highest court erased Weinstein’s conviction six years ago and ordered a new trial, ruling that Weinstein was prejudiced by evidence from other women whose allegations were not part of the case.

Weinstein, 74, faced up to 25 years in prison for sexually assaulting Ms Haley at his Manhattan apartment in 2006.

He has already served more than six years as his case has cycled again and again through the criminal justice system. Ms Haley gave her account of the assault at two trials and spoke again in court on Wednesday just before Weinstein was to be sentenced.

“Having been sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein has had a devastating effect on my life and sense of security that may never go away. Making the decision to speak up will have me looking over my shoulder for years to come,” Ms Haley said. 

“It’s a life sentence for me.

“I’ve been further traumatised in exercising my right to hold him accountable. All of this traces back to his actions,” she said, adding that she thought about ending her pursuit of justice many times.

Minutes later, Weinstein apologised in court to those he may have hurt.

“I do have remorse for Miriam Haley’s pain, but I have to reiterate my innocence,” he told the judge while seated in a wheelchair.

Weinstein originally sentenced to 23 years

He was originally sentenced to 23 years in prison after a jury convicted him of assaulting Ms Haley and raping an aspiring actress, Jessica Mann, in 2013.

But New York’s highest court erased those guilty verdicts in 2024, ruling that Weinstein was prejudiced by evidence from other women whose allegations were not part of the case.

Tried for a second time last year, Weinstein was again convicted of a first-degree criminal sex act for assaulting Ms Haley, who has also gone by the name Mimi Haleyi. In a messy split verdict, the jury acquitted him of forcibly performing oral sex on another woman and could not reach a verdict on a rape charge involving Ms Mann.

After another retrial ended in a hung jury in May, Manhattan prosecutors dropped the rape charge rather than pursue a fourth trial after Ms Mann said she could not bear to testify again.

That decision cleared the way for Weinstein’s sentencing.

Manhattan prosecutors asked for 20 years in prison — which would keep him behind bars until at least his late 80s.

Defence lawyer Jacob Kaplan asked that Weinstein receive a sentence of three more years on top of the six years he has already served, saying a longer sentence would make it more likely that Weinstein dies in prison.

Weinstein is in failing health and has been in the hospital six times since 2025, Mr Kaplan said, while dealing with blood cancer, congestive heart failure, and kidney issues. He has used a wheelchair now for several years.

Weinstein has denied raping or sexually assaulting anyone.

“I will be proven innocent. That I promise you,” Weinstein told The Hollywood Reporter in a prison interview in March.

Weinstein is also awaiting resentencing in a separate rape case in Los Angeles. A California appeals court upheld the 2022 conviction but threw out his original 16-year sentence because the judge had considered his New York convictions that were later thrown out as an aggravating factor.

After shuffling between state prison, where he tested positive for Covid-19 early in the pandemic, and New York City’s notorious Rikers Island complex, the ailing Weinstein is now housed at a medical unit for jail inmates at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan.